Report by UVic researcher makes clear the war on drugs is still raging strong across B.C.

With a cannabis dispensary seemingly on every second corner, Vancouver residents might think that police are already giving marijuana crimes a pass in advance of legalization scheduled to take effect later this year.

But a new report by University of Victoria researcher Susan Boyd makes clear that B.C. cops are still hassling lots of people for cannabis and other drugs, even when it comes to the simple matter of personal possession.

“B.C. had 11,004 cannabis possession arrests in 2016,” Boyd writes. “B.C. has the highest provincial cannabis possession arrest rate…in the nation, and the smallest decrease in rate from 2015–2016.”

Even in liberal Vancouver, there were plenty of people who got in trouble for carrying weed.

“The City of Vancouver had 961 cannabis possession arrests in 2016,” the document continues. “In 2016, 40.8% of all drug arrests in Vancouver were for cannabis possession.”

The March 2018 report is adapted from a presentation that Boyd drafted for the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU).

To write it, Boyd relied on Statistics Canada data. She notes that drug-arrest figures for Vancouver obtained from the federal agency are substantially higher than statistics for the same arrests supplied by the Vancouver Police Department (VPD).

The report also draws attention to arrests for hard drugs like heroin, and how those arrests are likely complicating authorities’ response to Canada’s overdose epidemic.

“Canada is currently experiencing the worst drug overdose death crisis in its history,” Boyd writes. “Given the extent of the crisis, it begs asking why possession arrests for heroin, methamphetamine, and ‘Other Drugs’ (listed by Statistics Canada as fentanyl, opioid prescriptions, etc.) are increasing across Canada.”

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